I'm a new teacher as well, so believe me, I know how it feels.

I had one student in class last week who asked would it be OK to start class lying her back, when my instruction was for everyone to sit in a comfortable position. I took a breath before answering, considered her question and said, "It's your practice, so sure!"

So I adjusted my cues about lengthening the spine and rooting the sit bones, etc. to include how it would feel lying on one's back (she did have her knees bent). She said she was concerned we would be going into seated overhead arm stretches and twists, and didn't like those. I said we would be spending maybe 4-5 minutes sitting (centering and breathing, setting intention, chanting oms), then moving into child's pose to start the asanas. I didn't quite feel comfortable telling her my plan like that, but I saw she needed to know more than I needed to be attached to my teaching plan, so I told her. She did stay on her back, then joined us in child's pose, so I guess all worked out.

I admit, I was taken aback initially, and it took a moment's effort not to react. Yoga for the teacher as well as the students.

Yeah, well I wouldn't have told this story if I wasn't open for feedback on it.

I try to always ask before the start of class whether anyone has any issues or injuries. This woman didn't claim to have any, and just straight out said she didn't want to sit up lest I do any seated sidebending or twisting. Even once I told her that we wouldn't be doing any, she still refused to sit up. I wasn't going to argue with her or be insistent, especially since this was the first time I was teaching this timeslot, taking over for a well-established teacher there. So I decided at that moment that it was better from all perspectives to compromise my teaching principles slightly than make a student feel uncomfortable and put on the spot (attacked, even, as it might seem from her point of view), in my very first time teaching that particular class.

How much can you admonish an adult that they'll be missing out if they don't do what you ask of them? Certainly I made that clear to this student. After a point, you just let it go.

As for latecomers, that happens all the time (I teach at a gym, 'nuff said, and a high-end one at that). Ten, fifteen minutes late even, for a 55 minute class. What am I going to do, refuse to let them in? I smile to welcome them as they arrive and encourage them to warm up on their own, reminding them of when class does start. It's annoying, their behavior and disrespect, but that's all I can do.

The main reason I posted this story was to relate that as a new teacher, you come up on all sorts of personalities and situations that challenge your own peace, as well as your professional and well thought out plan for conducting your class. I know that with time and more experience, these issues will cease to be "issues", but right now, they are my yoga. These students are my gurus, as my teacher would say. Even just preparing my classes each week is starting to drag me down (coming up with a class theme and appropriate sequence of poses), and I'm starting to yearn for when all this will become a seemingly effortless process. I'm teaching barely two months. I swear, I'm laughing at myself already here.